Ah, so two weeks have elapsed of my new job, two weeks that skated between elation, boredom, fear, and frustration. It’s a whole different world over here. Some people like it, some people don’t. Me? I’m withholding judgment for now. I do like my team–they seem like quiet, competent, hardworking folks. They’ve been helpful to a total outsider in all senses of the word–an old unix + java wonk who’s now playing in the world of C/C++ and Windows.
The code is a revelation–tight, Object Oriented, and thought out. These folks don’t vomit out code the second an idea strikes (yes, I’m talking about myself there…). For one thing, C++ really doesn’t benefit from that style–the separation of header implementation files makes you be more deliberate. The only downside there is it seems to encourage copy/paste coding because things are so darn…finicky. There’s lots of macros/typedefs/etc to remember, and it’s impossible to keep everything in your head without referencing MSDN.
Anyway, not all is roses–the tools have been killing me. Just getting ClearCase/ClearQuest installed and playing nice with Visual Studio 8 is still ongoing. Coming from Subversion, ClearCase seems like an answer in search of a question–locks everywhere, “branches” (called streams) on top of more branches.
I understand the reasoning behind most of it: We’re working in Microsoft Certification hell. Basically, Microsoft runs a certification suite against the driver we produce, and then digitally signs that code. After that, if we change even one bit (yeah, I’m talking computer bits here–a single 1 or 0 in the compiled code), then that signature won’t match and the driver is no longer certified. Not the optimal thing, but like I said, “…in the new reality”.
I’ve had the dreaded Intellisense problem in Visual Studio 2005–I loaded-up the product .sln file (this is like an Eclipse “workspace”) and then Visual C++ showed a message “Updating Intellisense”. This never completes. I tried installing the Service Pack 1, but that installation failed about because it requires TWO GIGABYTES of HD space to install.
The main lesson here is: I probably should’ve reimaged my trusty Windows XP box before embarking on this journey. It doesn’t like the Micro$oft tools very much. :D
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But hey, let’s remember the intangibles–Good management chain, own office, regular hours, new problems to solve.